TofuSal

A dollar? Blimey! It's about 8 pounds here!

I am a huge fan of Orange Page! It has lots of good home Japanese cooking, great photography & easy to follow instructions. I tend to skip the sections on being the perfect housewife though. I used to buy it all the time when I lived over there (and had time to stay home cooking all day!) It's only a couple of hundred yen, but it's very expensive to buy here in the UK. Fortunately, all the Japanese guys in my office (& those coming over from head office) are trained to purchase a copy at Narita before they board their flight to London. No matter how embarrassed they may feel!

With regard to the folks who have had trouble buying fresh lamb mince (though that's not too much of a problem in the UK) when I make Shepherd's Pie, these days I always use lamb left over from a roast chopped into tiny pea-size pieces (more 'bite' than if whizzed in the processor). I got the idea from my adored HFW 'Meat' book and the results have been wonderful, especially if the meat is cooked with a reduction of some stock made from the lamb bone as well as tomato. (We enjoy this left-overs dish more than the roast dinner!) I wonder if this method would work well for Mousakka? Or would it over-power the aubergine? As for a veggie version, I like to used finely chopped mushrooms (you need LOTS!) combined with a variety of lentils & maybe a minced vegetable like turnip in place of the meat, you need to be quite generous with the seasoning.

I'm very impressed by the challenge you have set yourself and thoroughly enjoying the ringside seat!! I'm getting the urge to dust down some of my fancier, less creased-up books! I have to agree with Jinnmyo with regard to the peas. My husband & I grow (or try to grow) all our own vegetables on our our allotment; the only thing we don't bother with is peas. They're lovely if you happen to be able to pick them, shell them & throw then in the pot all within 5 minutes (from one's own lovely cottage garden!), but if left for too long they lose all flavour and tenderness. I once embarrassed myself by purchasing "fresh" peas to accompany a particularly luxurious fish pie..... never again. Garden peas are, I think, the frozen food industry's one triumph.

Some American friends and I visited Guam for Christmas once when I lived in Saga-ken. It was a loooong time ago (about 12 years! ) so it may be very different now. I'm afraid I have no particular delights to report (apart from cocktails by the pool!). Mostly it was American fast food chains thanks to all the American servicemen based there with their families - pizzas & bugers - but we had no complaints about that since we were very young, it was years before any of the big chains had really made inroads in Kyushu & we wanted us some FUN FOOD after months & months of Japanese food. (Like I said, we were young!) For Christmas lunch we bought a packet of turkey slices, some fresh bread and a bottle of champagne and had a picnic on the beach - classy huh? There were also LOTS of Japanese places to eat, from swanky to mom&pop ramen shops. In fact, it's quite hard to get a taxi driver to take you downtown to find out where the locals eat - if you stay in a Japanese hotel (as we did) the drivers automatically take you to the shopping/dining malls aimed directly at Japanese holiday makers with lots of cash spare, so you have to be insistent or get a bus. We did find a couple of fun bars that locals went to where there was lovely food (again burgers, fries, tex-mex, HUGE portions when you're used to Japanese style) and bands playing, but I guess that won't be what you're looking for with three children. I've probably not been a huge help, but I hope you have a lovely time! Oh yes, did I mention the cocktails?!

What a fun day out you had in Odaiba! And the coincidence is, the company I work for built & manages Aqua City!! Really enjoying this blog Kristin, it encouraged me to join up. I've really been interested to see the variety of family meals you devise (I'm a stickler for using up everything) and the bentos you make for your husband everyday. Actually, I have an embarrassing bento story to share - many years ago living in a small town in Saga Prefecture, when my (now ex) husband first left the Self Defense Force & began working at a motor repair workshop I was more enthusiastic than skilled in my bento preparation. I knew how much he loved to eat tako-yaki (octopus snack balls) when we went to festivals so one day, as a surprise I filled the top layer of his box with tako-yaki (I got about 12 in, it was a huge man-size bento box!) and I thought he'd be really happy about it. However, he was the laughing stock of the garage that day and it took a couple of months to live down!! My bentos became a little more traditional after that....